Apple designers eventually hope to remove most of the external ports and buttons on the iPhone, including the charger, according to people familiar with the company's work. During the development of the iPhone X, Apple weighed removing the wired charging system entirely. That wasn't feasible at the time because wireless charging was still slower than traditional methods. Including a wireless charger with new iPhones would also significantly raise the price of the phones.

Apple may be working towards an iPhone that is devoid of all buttons and ports, and is completely wireless. But there are obstacles that Apple has to overcome to make this possible. iPhones rely on the Lightning cable for charging, file transfer, audio and all sorts of accessories. While there are some wireless alternatives (like wireless charging, and connection over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi), not all of them are as fast or easy as using a wire.

Not everyone likes the idea of Apple ditching the Lightning port.

When Apple removed the floppy drive (and eventually the CD drive) from Macs, it was easy to work around with external drives. If Apple removes the Lightning connector, they’d need to provide a wireless bridge to wired accessories (including my brand new car with wired CarPlay). https://t.co/64EEIK2QPX